Overnight Halibut: The Trip of the Lifetime
by Martin Freed and Ruta Vaskys
The boat appeared to float a few inches above the waters of the fjord. The mountains and cliffs rose vertically on both sides of us and framed the image as the vessel slipped into a fog bank at the mouth of Resurrection Bay where it enters the Gulf of Alaska.
We were on a trip of a lifetime: An overnight halibut adventure into the waters off Montague Island. This area is said to be home to the largest flatfish in the World. We were invited along with a few other outdoor editors and writers by Mustad, the fish hook people. The four hour boat ride was reduced to about three and a half because unlike the predictions of gale winds, the sea was dead calm. Predictions in the far north are notoriously unreliable because of the lack of reporting stations.
Montague Island rose up out of the fog like a disembodied apparition. The mountains seemed to float on a layer of steam above the ocean. The vessel slowed and the mate headed to the bow and slipped the anchor overboard.
It was only about 50 feet deep. This is very shallow for halibut which are usually caught in 200-400 feet of water. But in early summer, they do take up residence in these depths. The mate rigged 12/0 Mustad circle hooks with whole herring and large strips of red salmon.
While most of us fished with bait, a few of the writers used the largest plastic tail jigs we had ever seen. We dropped down and our baits were immediately attacked. To our disappointment, all who were not using jigs, hooked spiny dogfish.
The captain urged us to be patient, The halibut will find us. After about 10 minutes of pulling the small sharks, the first big fish was hooked by one of the fellows using a jig. The grunting started. His rod was bent in half when the other jig fisher got whacked. Now there was double grunting.
After about five minutes, the small halibut, about 35 pounds was on the surface. The captain and mate urged him to release the fish because larger ones will be coming.
Those of us fishing with bait were still not catching anything but sharks. The captain again urged patience. Ruta's herring-salmon combo suddenly got slammed. And the fish took off. She hung on as the fish dove, swerved and shook. Muscles straining, lungs pushed to capacity and carpel tunnel hands aching, she still hung on and refused offers of help. The fish was about half way up when it sounded to bottom. This happened three times but in each instance it did not dive as far. After about ten minutes of give and take, a large 'but was brought to the surface. It was a shooter. The captain put a 410 shotgun right behind its head and pulled the trigger. Then with the help of the mate, and two gaffs the fish was brought on board.
That was just the beginning. There were seven of us and we each put two halibut into the fish box. The smallest that we kept were about 50 pounds. Many others were caught and released. The largest fish was about 130 pounds. Not a giant but big enough.
We spent the night in a calm cove but I bet there was not much sleep between the lot of us. We were all looking forward to tomorrow's fishing. It was decided that we had caught enough halibut the day before and that we would try for some king salmon. Besides our arms and hands felt like they had been put through an old fashion washing machine wringer.
The next day was bright and sunny but a bit windier. We trolled for king and silver salmon most of the day. Everyone caught at least a couple in addition to a number of two different species of rockfish.
These guys, the rockfish, which ran between four and 10 pounds resemble grouper. When we got home to Fairbanks and tried them, we were sorry we didn't catch more. They were among the tastiest fish we ever had eaten.
This was the trip of a lifetime. Giant halibut, beautiful silvery salmon, majestic lingcod, gourmet rockfish, magnificent scenery and a stunning ocean, what more can an outdoors person ask for.
The best part of the trip: On the way out and the night before at the lodge, all the macho men were bragging about their fishing ability talking about past angling experiences. Ruta, the only woman on the boat, was mostly quiet. So who goes on to catch the biggest fish? You guessed right. Not only did the woman catch the biggest fish, she caught the two biggest: One about 120 lbs and the other 131. Not only that. She was the only one who caught all the species we were targeting.